Now, I want everybody to pull out their Satanic Rituals book and take a look at page 158. You will find a ceremony of a dedication to Satan. Now my question is, what is the point of a dedication to Satan ceremony if Satan doesn't exist as an entity?

I feel I already know the answer to this, although, I do enjoy giving a "poke to your brain" so to speak. And besides, chances are somebody would of asked this question, best to get it out now, rather than deal with it later.

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"There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised." ~ Anton Szandor LaVey

To me, the reason there is a Dedication to Satan ceremony is to celebrate yourself. Satan is a representation of everything that is carnel in man. If your a Satanist, chances are you are a very carnel human being, and thusly, it is easy to say, you, yourself, happens to be Satan. That's what I believe the answer would be to my own question.

Hail Satan!Or in other words...Hail Me!!!!

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"There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised." ~ Anton Szandor LaVey

Quote:what is the point of a dedication to Satan ceremony if Satan doesn't exist as an entity?

You could ask the same question of the Infernal Names, Enochian Keys, or just about any other aspect of Satanic Ritual.

My answer is this: During ritual, the dualistic perspectives of known/unknown, real/unreal, and true/false is abandoned. The ability to do this is enhanced through willful acceptance (suspension of disbelief) of Satanic imagery. It's all about "Intellectual Decompression."

Remember, as a kid, believing - really believing - in magic? Remember the power? The wonder? You get that back in ritual, which offers novel means of manifesting your will.

_________________________If people had wings, they would die on their backs, buzzing around in little circles.-Uncle Fester, "Silent Death"

I would like to focus on the word "dedication".While I could agree that the ritual might be used to celebrate ones-self, I tend to view it more in the line of charging your own battery.Within the context of dedication, you are focusing points of view about which you hold. You are aligning thoughts and emotion to center, so that when it is needed you could send both to "ground" as if a snap of current. The celebration would then be the recognition of who you are and what potential you have, because you have charged yourself with knowing power.Think of it like a deep-cycle battery that does not drain flat with use, and only needs minimal maintenance to stay at it's peak. Once it is alive with current it just powers throuogh its' life, solid and reliable.

Quote:Now, I want everybody to pull out their Satanic Rituals book and take a look at page 158. You will find a ceremony of a dedication to Satan. Now my question is, what is the point of a dedication to Satan ceremony if Satan doesn't exist as an entity?

I feel I already know the answer to this, although, I do enjoy giving a "poke to your brain" so to speak. And besides, chances are somebody would of asked this question, best to get it out now, rather than deal with it later.

You are quite new to all of this, aren't you?

_________________________ "One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike and yet it is the most precious thing we have." - Albert Einstein
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You do not have to dedicate yourself to a god/entity, but you dedicate yourself to satanism, to the things it stands for.You aknowledge who you are and what is Satan for you - a symboll of a real life in a real word. By dedication to Satan a persons agrees that he is a satanist, that he bows to no man made gods. No religions or moral laws shall stand before the satanist and his goal. It is here, in this world were he must win, were he must find pleasure and were he must be succesfull ...not is another life or another place.As for me, I dedicate myself to only one god: Satan = Me.Anybody who folows this simple principle is a god himself.